The Turbo Tax Blog last month had an interesting post looking at the question of How Much Money Does The Government Make From Alcohol? It’s an overview, of course, and doesn’t include some of the dirty details that make alcohol the most taxed consumer good out there (though tobacco is pretty high, too), but there certainly is some interesting information contained in the rather large infographic.
Maybe I’m misinterpreting the State Beer Tax chart, but I know that Nebraska taxes brewers 31¢ per gallon, or $9.61 per barrel. That tax is levied on production, not removals.
The government doesn’t make a penny on liquor. The government steals our money when we purchase alcohol. The government only ‘makes’ war.
Frustrating that the top chart shows all the taxes in per-barrel terms, rather than per unit of pure alcohol. This artificially makes beer look like, comparatively, it is lightly taxed.